We left Fair Haven campground this morning about 11 or so. It was sunny and warm. I drove 180 miles today, as we were driving the roads got flatter and flatter, no hills. We got to Suwannee river State park about 3, which is located in the upper panhandle of Florida. It was 84 and sunny when we got here. Our site is in the outer loop, which meant I had to do a blind back in from my right. Melissa and I communicated by our phones and my first attempt was a little tight, so I had to pull ahead a little more. My next try was fine with Melissa guiding me in. We set up and relaxed a little. The sites here are mostly packed sand. There are pine trees, and palm trees all around.

the river is a short walk from us, and they have 20 miles or so of hiking trails. Tomorrow will be sunny so we will try a few of the trails around. Pictures below are of our site.

Today ,was bright and sunny 76 out. After we dropped Cooper off at day care we went to the Waffle house for breakfast. OOOH so good, then we went to the Robin’s Air force Base Museum of Aviation. Four huge buildings and a big outdoor display, with all kinds of aircraft, actual historic aircraft. From WWII to early jet fighters , Vietnam era and current high tec jets. We spent over 4 hours there. It was really cool. The best part was that it was free. They are restoring right now a B17 from WWII. Below are pictures of some of the aircraft.

Tomorrow is travel day again. We will be in Florida tomorrow, and will be there for the next 4 months or so at different places. The weather is also warming up, now day time highs are getting to be high 70’s, NICE

READY FOR TAKEOFF

NOT A CLUE WHAT I AM LOOKING AT, SO I ABORTED MY TAKEOFF!!!!

P-40 WARHAWK( FLYING TIGERS) WWII

P-51 WWII

PARATROOPER JUMP DISPLAY, WWII

SR-71 BLACKBIRD SPY PLANE, MID 1960’S

MASSIVE B-52 STRAFORTRESS, MID 1960’S ON

VIETNAM ERA HUEY CHOPER GUNSHIP, MID 1960’S ON

F-15 TOMCAT FIGHTER

We are now in Perry Georgia, at the Fair Haven campground.

We left Lake Hartwell South Carolinia about 11 this morning it was a bright sunshine day . Drove 218 miles today and we got here about 3 this afternoon. Today was the most traffic we have seen yet.  Mainly because we went by Atlanta, which is 5 lanes of traffic and just clogged. After that it was not to bad. We are now using I-75 right into Florida. We stayed in for dinner, and took a good 2 mile walk around the campground, very nice place.  It is 71 right now and will be 81 tomorrow. Also Tomorrow we will drop Cooper off at day care and go to the Air museum and see all the vintage planes. Wednesday we pack up and leave for Florida.

Here are some pics of our site and the campground.

Yep, back in Pendleton, Pendleton south Carolina of course, who knew. It is also one of the most visited places in the country, again who knew. More on that later.

Friday was a rainy day so we cleaned the inside of the Rv most of the day. We rewarded ourselves with a big pot roast dinner, good. Saturday we decided to go for a few more hikes to waterfalls. I t was partly sunny and 60, but good for hiking. We first went to Chau Ram County park ,where they have a 30 foot falls, but wider than most. We liked the falls, but were surprised how nice it was there. We took a few of the trails along the river, where we saw a few rapids and things. There was also a suspension bridge crossing the river, it looked pretty new. In all we hiked a little over a mile.

After that we went to Yellow branch falls. This one is a 60 foot cascade over rock ledges. When we got to the trailhead, there was not a parking spot to be found, we had to park close to the road. This hike to the falls, was about 1.5 miles just to get there. It went through a forested area, and then skirted the side of a hill most of the way. We also had to cross the creek a number of times, there were a few bridges and stepping stone crossings. There were a lot of people on this trail, and when we got to the falls there were about 10 people there. This was a nice falls and pretty loud, with the rain we just had it was running pretty good.

After we got back to the truck, I have to say I was a little popped and hungry. So we decided to go to the Smokin Pig, for dinner. What a place, very popular and the food was good. It was very busy as many people there had just come from the Clemson college football game. We are close to Clemson, people here are fanatical about their collage football. I had the barbeques chopped chicken with fries and fried Okra??. Melissa had the barbeques chopped pork, with sweet potato casserole and banana pudding. We enjoyed our dinners a lot.

OK, back to Pendleon.  Very historic town with lots of history, but it was funny i am back in Pendleton once again. Maybe they need a building inspector. Ha, Ha,.

Tomorrow Monday we leave to go to Perry Georgia for 3 days then we go to The top of Florida on Wednesday. we will then be in Florida for the next4 months. Chow for now.

Today we went out and about the area. It was a really nice sunny 70 degree day. We went a total of about 100 miles today. Our first stop was in the Sumter Mountain area north west S. Carolinia, at Stumphouse Tunnel State Park. As the name implies there is a tunnel there. It is 1600 feet into the mountain. First dug in the early 1850’s to try and get a railroad through. The civil war got in the way and brought construction to a halt. It was pretty neat, being dug with not a lot of the equipment we have today

We then took a short hike to Issaqueena Falls. This is a 200 foot falls, but you can only access it from the top. It is named that after a Indian Maiden rode to warn the fort nearby of a Indian attack coming. she then escaped the pursuing Indians by pretending to jump over but actually hid beneath them.  She them later married a white man and they settled in the area. Pretty neat.

After that we drove to Station Cove Falls. This was about a mile and a half walk in the woods, which was very peaceful. the trail was nice and wide and not to hilly. When we got there we were rewarded with a good view of the falls.

Melissa crossing the raging waters.

We then walked back to the trail head and visited the Fort or Station that was built @ 1792. It was an outpost manned by 30 or so Militiamen and they were to protect the area and settlers from Indians. After a while a stone building was put up as a trading post. These are the original buildings and are pretty impressive. People today never would have survived.

The buildings were built at the intersection of a old Indian trail ,and early wagon road. By the early 1800s it became pretty obsolete. Built on a hill it commanded the whole area. After that we drove back home, had dinner and are now relaxing. More to come.

 

We are now in Lake Hartwell Campground, in Anderson S. Carolinia. It is about 11 miles from Georgia border. I drove 221 miles yesterday. It was sunny and cool. The traffic was heavy and we hit construction, which meant eyes on the road at all times. I was tired when we got here. We set up fine only to find out our 50 amp service was not working. The guys from the campground came by and tried to fix it, but we had to hook up with 30 amp for the night. This morning they came by with the “Expert” and after replacing the 50 amp breaker we were fine to go. The campground is about 80 percent seasonals, or permanent. It is an older park but set in a pine tree forest. If you like boats and fishing this is your spot. The next few days we will be venturing about the area to see whats here. The pictures below are of our site. Thanks, see Ya all.

Yesterday we went into Mt Airy, the birthplace of Andy Griffith and the fictional setting for Mayberry. There is really only about a 1/2 mile stretch that is all original to the town and is mostly about Mayberry. It is cool .We first went to the visitor center, where we got information and booked a squad car tour through the town. We then went to Wally’s service station to take the tour. The building is the original filling station with the pumps and inside was the original store. Here we see Melissa getting ready to go pay for the gas.

There are four of Barneys squad cars for tours. None of which are original, they were only used for one season and after that season new models were given to the show. The older models were taken back by Ford Motor company, re painted and then sold to the public, so no one knows where all the original cars went. The four cars for tours are a 1961, 62,63,and 64 models. Melissa hoped in the front seat and I was the fugitive captured in the back. The tour went first to the largest open pit granite mine in the world, who knew. It is only 70 feet deep and has been hauling out granite slabs for everything from buildings, bridges to curbing used in upstate New York as it will not corrode in the salt. Again who knew, pretty neat.

Then we went to tour the town itself, a lot of buildings made of the granite from the granite mine. The tour guide has been giving tours for 11 years, he knew his stuff. When ever someone was in his way he would hit the Siren and say in Barney”s voice “citizen’s arrest” It was fun, we also saw the birthplace of Andy Griffith , very small house. It is now a B&B.

The tour lasted about a half an hour and then we returned to Wally’s service station, where the guide told us a few facts about the show. first Andy and Aunt Bee disliked each other very much ,she was on broad way for years and when she got the role for Aunt Bee, it was television and she had different ideas about things. Also Floyd the barber after the third season had a series of strokes, and Andy liked him so much he still wanted him in the show, so after the third season you never see Floyd standing up, he is always sitting down or leaning against something. Who knew. Then we took a few pictures of the recreated spots from the show.

My new ride, needs a little fixin though.

Otis’s jail cell.

 

Melissa makes a good judge

A new sheriff is in town. Someone actually asked me if I worked there while I was in the chair??

It was a very good time, we also went to the Andy Griffith museum to see all that and that also was very interesting. Overall a good time.

 

 

We are now at the Mayberry campground in Mt Airy North Carolina. We left Walnut Hills yesterday around 10 am ,and got to Mayberry about 2 pm. it was about 180 miles of driving in the bright sunshine, a nice change from all the other drives in the rain. The campground is very near Mt Airy the home town of Andy Griffith. He is a big deal here.

The campground is on a hill, with different tiers or levels. Not a lot of trees, and most spots like ours do not have a picnic table. The picture below is our site.

We went up to the Blue ridge parkway the other day and took about a 80 mile drive. The parkway goes right in the Blue ridge mountains, up and down over ravines and streams and all that.. It is about 300 miles long or so. It was built in the 30’s as a scenic parkway, no commercial vehicles. Then most of the trees were logged for lumber so a lot of the wayside pull overs now have trees grown up so the view is not that good. But the day was clear for us and looking down into the Shenandoah valley was cool. The first thing we did was go to the Humpback mountain visitor center. After that in our infinite wisdom we decide to hike up Humpback Mountain. It says it is .8 of a mile to the summit. A fifteen minute walk if it is flat. It took us an hour and fifteen minutes to get to the top. A lot of uphill, and switchbacks, but we did it and the view was very nice. Of course we made the first mistake of hikers, we forgot a backpack , no water and did not take our phones. No matter we are troopers, ya right. Took a half hour to come down. After we got to the truck we rewarded ourselves with two big fat donuts, we bought earlier at Donut Delight near Staunton as we drove up. They were good, but not good for us.

Below is a description of the hike as told by another hiker, which is spot on.

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“The hike to the Humpback overlook is about 1 mile (one-way), mostly straight up. The first half mile is no exception, but at least at this point the trail is relatively smooth, nothing like the rocky terrain that awaits you on the second half. Once you hit the second uphill climb, the trail not only becomes very strenuous, but also potentially dangerous. This area is extremely rocky, with staircases made of rocks, small rock fields that make it as if you are walking on rubble, and large rocks that you have to step up onto and over.

The hike is extremely strenuous, not to mention technically difficult and potentially dangerous without the proper equipment—boots and hiking poles. You do not need to be on this trail if you have a bad back or bad knees or are completely out of shape. You don’t need to be hiking this trail. However once you reach the top it was all worth it !!     As told by Steven L. Markos”

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We weren’t planning on taking this trail so we didn’t have the proper equipment or water. And like Steve Markos said we are out of shape. Nor did we have our Head Dogs, Doug & Jennifer who always hiked these kind of trails with us when we were younger and in shape. But they I’m sure are proud of us. And the view was awesome when you got to the top!

After that we drove the parkway for a while, there was fog on one side while the other was clear. We then stopped at a few wayside areas. One of which had a small falls and railroad exhibit. The pictures below are from there, it was pretty neat

 

A stop at Rock point overlook with a few pics of the valley.

After that we drove back to Staunton and had dinner at the Cracker Barrel. I had the trout which was very good with mashed potatoes and green beans. Melissa had Chicken and Dumplings which she said was good. Then we went back to the campground and relaxes, we were pretty beat after that hike, but us old geasers did it. What a day!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today was our first full day here, it was a sunny beautiful day here. You know you are getting south when you see rolling hills. We went to Staunton to the Walmart of course. We also had breakfast at the Waffle House, ya baby I loved it Melissa so so, Oh well. We also got a visitors guide and will be sight seeing the next few days. When we got back here we took a walk, it is 2 miles of campground roads up and down hills. First time I ever saw Rvs on the sides of hills!!!!. This used to be a plantation way back in the day and there is still the house here and a lot of the original walnut trees, very cool. Our site pics are below.